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UK’s military chief warns intervention in Syria risks all-out war

Richards believes any response to the use of chemical weapons by Syria would have to be on a huge scale

BRITAIN’S most senior military officer has warned David Cameron that
intervening in Syria would risk sucking UK forces into an all-out war.

General Sir David Richards, chief of the defence staff, believes any military
response to the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad’s regime would
have to be on a huge scale to succeed.

Cameron condemned an apparent nerve gas attack on civilians in Aleppo as a
“war crime”, intensifying pressure for an international response. The option
of imposing a no-fly zone over Syria has not been ruled out, officials say.

However, Richards is said to have urged the government to consider whether
what appears to have been a small-scale use of chemicals should be a tipping
point. “Even to set up a humanitarian safe area would be a major military
operation without the co-operation of the Syrians,” he told senior defence
figures. “In Syria, we have to be